


Nut Cakes

by The_ruby_finch



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:48:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29704293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_ruby_finch/pseuds/The_ruby_finch
Summary: 'It had just been a meagre two hours,but Irene was already thrusting her husband by his forearm,towards the other side of the small shanty hut,gesticulating wildly,with savage fury. 'The Attolia's, eggs,nut cakes and poor Costis.
Relationships: Attolia | Irene & Eugenides & Costis Ormentiedes, Attolia | Irene/Eugenides
Kudos: 3





	Nut Cakes

**Author's Note:**

> No beta. I might correct it later, but I really just wanted to get it out.

It had just been a meagre two hours,but Irene was already thrusting her husband by his forearm,towards the other side of the small shanty hut,gesticulating wildly,with savage fury. Gen thought she may be slightly hysterical. Only slightly. And Gen(,ever the example of grace and decorum )replied to the assertive:’come here’ and the rather unlady like grunting with a facetious :’my dear what's on your face’.Gen let Irene step on his Sandaled foot. Some of the eggs slipped out of her locks and plopped onto the dirty floor.

‘This is your fault’,she shrieked.So she was in hysterics.

‘And why is that?’,he questioned cleaning his turmeric covered nails.He groaned,they would stain.He would have to clean them.Later.

She looked at him as if the reason was so discernable:‘You’re the reason Costis left-‘

‘Excuse me’,Gen interjected,raising a hand and a particularly shiny hook.He had tripped and fallen into the wash basin,just a moment before.He had forgotten about the egg on the floor.

‘You said-‘

Oh no,he knew where this was going.’I didn’t say that,I suggested,that’s not the same thing.’

‘You told Costis that you’d make breakfast for him!’

‘I don’t remember saying that.you said that you felt bad for Costis because he was doing so much work whilst we were wringing our hands by the hearth-your own words- and it was your idea to help him out,I only told Costis that if he went outside for a bit he’d come home to a nice surprise,courtesy of us.I never once mentioned breakfast.’

She rolled her eyes at him'.Nevertheless,you told Costis to leave,when he comes home to no breakfast he’s going to tear you to shreds.

‘Me?Why me?,’where was the loyalty?

‘Well he’ll never hurt me!’

‘Wait,wait-‘

She ignored him.’And besides, Costis is probably doing some form of hard labour outside, be that something as simple as helping an old widower cross the street whilst carrying the merchants tin pots’(probably true) and most importantly he’s expecting breakfast!’ 

‘At Least some men are diligent and-‘,she continued scornfully:’honest,’Gen raised his eyebrows so high,he was slightly fearful that they would jump off his forehead.

‘He is not expecting breakfast,I did not tell him about breakfast,I only said-‘

You told him to leave the kitchen,how stupid do you think he is?,’she stared at him in what could only be described as intense vexation. He had grown used to it over the years.

‘But You’re the one who told me to do it—you literally’,he cried lamely,’ dear, that’s the burner!’

‘She slapped her hand on the tabletop to her right and then after a few long,long seconds of brushing her apron and untying merciless knots in her hair,which had just a minute ago had come adone from the nape of her neck,she finally seemed to have collected herself. She sighed,’I decided on breakfast because-,she raised her hand before he could start another asinine form of contention-‘because you said you knew how to cook.’

(I can cook) Gen would not sulk.Not even to his wife. 

‘And then you decided to juggle all those eggs,’she pressed on.(He had gotten distracted!)

‘I can roast a chicken’, he suggested

‘Are we FUCKiNG roasting a chicken,Eugenides?’ ,she screeched and just before another snotty mixture could rush down her cheek,she reached for the peeling egg remnants and threw it at his face. Gen closed his eyes in dismay,his fringe was sticking to his forehead.

‘No we are making eggs,do you hear me?,and after some contemplation she said :’nut cakes’ 

‘Nut cakes?’,he repeated

‘Oh stop it,you know that’s what I said’, swiping his hand in annoyance.she had stopped looking at him as well.Gen sighed .

‘Do you even know how to make nut cakes?’

‘I’ve seen them being made Eugenides’,she rolled her eyes.

Gen decided,at that particular moment, to instead look at the chaos before him. The assorted eggs laid cracked on the floor. Some of the pots were laying in a heap by the wash basin,but had been upturned by his frankly embarrassing fall previously. There were egg splatters in the wooden pillars holding the roof, as well.Eugenides had been able to make some concoction on the heated rocks,which had excited Irene until she tried a tentative bite and then spat out the burned chars and egg shells onto a napkin. Well he thought she had been excited, she may have just been trying to be good natured.

Well that was a hit to his pride,after all Eugenides thought that he could cook. He had been a common resident of the kitchen for Gods sake, he knew how to cook eggs. He apparently didn't’

And then a belated thought hit him:oh gods he would have to clean this all.Clean!

Clasping his forehead,with his palm,which had already become printed with egg,he closed his eyes and said:’look if you help me clean this all up,we can make nut cakes,it’s just nuts-we have so many nuts’,he waved his hands, his eyes still closed.

‘Let’s just forget about the eggs,ok,’he said impishly, deigning to finally look back at Irene. She still wasn’t looking at him, opting instead to look out of the window, whilst leaning on the ledge, her long legs crossed at the ankles.

‘Eugenides,’Irene asked abruptly, do you ever want to learn how to cook? Properly,’she added.

‘She continued at Gen’s silence:’I’ve always wanted to cook,I’ve never done it,for obvious reasons,but I’ve always wondered what it would have been like if me and you did leave. (silence)We can’t even cook eggs properly.We’d have to rely on the markets’,her lips thinned but she did not laugh.

‘Helen can not cook either,Irene,I promise you she is probably even worse than I;even poor Sophos couldn’t even crisp a chicken correctly,he had to rely on Ambiades,’he smiled up at her but she did not move.

Instead Irene questioned,almost to herself:’if we must be staying for any longer,,then surely we’d learn how to make eggs by then?’

‘We can ask Costis to teach us, that is if you want?’,there was nothing wrong in doing so of course but Eugenides did have an ample amount of embarrassment coursing through him and the mere thought of asking someone for help.’

‘Maybe,he’ll forgive us for our misdemeanours today,’he mentioned.

‘Maybe’,she answered,turning towards him,finally out of her reverie.

‘Oh’,she gasped in exasperation,We need honey eugenides-gen looked dejectly at the upturned jar.

‘Honey?, she rolled her eyes at him again, ‘oh the nutcakes, were still doing that?’

‘We don’t have to do that-,’she said in a strangely timid manner. Gen decided this was the perfect time for a mandatory squeeze of his wife's hand.

‘Well,If you start cleaning’,as he squeezed her hand,’I’ll get some honey.’

Instead of pleasing his ears with praises of endearment his wife said:And where do you expect me to put all this?,costis could be coming any minute’,she waved at the scorched tin pans which should have stew but the bottoms had become crusty. They did try to make a stew when all the eggs had committed suicide on them. And now Irene wanted to make nut cakes, which didn't require any actual cooking, but-

He pointed to the right of the kitchen.

‘No’,Irene sighed.

‘He’ll never know.’

Irene, it seemed, had decided to stop caring, because her next sentence was an assertive:’Fine,give me the broom-and the water basin-yes thank you. And please clean your face,you look like you’ve been in an accident with an belligerent mother hen.’

‘Gen blew a raspberry at her, whilst directing some of his spit towards his wife:’incorrigible’,she declared,but she was giggling slightly.

‘Honey for nut cakes,honey for nut cakes got it’-as he was pushed towards the door, ‘anything else?’ Gen would have to get her an appointment with Petrus when, not if, they returned back to the palace, that much eye rolling could not be good for her.

‘Eugenides,your purse!’,she shouted at the back of his head.

*

Costis wasn’t sure how they had done it.The nut cakes were slightly dry but they had walnuts in it,which was his favourite and the toast and cheese were good accompaniments to the desert,even though the bread was slightly charred. And most importantly,the hut was spotless.Very unexpected. He was thirsty though, perhaps he should get a goblet and try some of the wine he had bought with him from town.He walked towards the cabinet at the side of the kitchen,facing the window.

Wait.why was it not opening?Was the latch stuck?Costis pressed on the handle and used more force,pivoting his boot on the stone floor for a better angle.Aah there.

*

‘My dear,said Gen,cuddling his wife with his left arm,whilst she fed him the final dregs of the nut cake,did you hear that crashing nose?’


End file.
